whilst certainly not a total newbie to bikes, most of my time to date has been on fairly stock setups of bikes with the current steed being a Klein Palomino.   As time goes on, i'm finding that I am attacking the trails harder and faster and in some cases i've avoided things knowing that if try them, i'd likely break the bike . . . which i dont really want to do.

So my mind is coming round to the idea of saving up for a fairly beefy free-ride style bike.  I'm to put together something that has a decent amount of travel, will take a jump and will remain *fairly* pedalable in terms of going uphill ( kinda )   One of things that i come across when looking at the frames is the thru-axle stuff on the rear.    Take the VP-Free as an example, it has a 12mm 150mm axle.    So its quite clear that my current spare hubs which are 135mm quick release affairs are not going to drop in.   

So what are the options in terms of hubs to fit a VP-Free ( and similar rear ends )?     So far from what i've seen, any suitable hubs are realitively expensive compared to a normal mtb rear hub ( i have Hope XC's on the Klein ).   

What tends to be the basic ranges / makes and what are the medium / top end stuff?

At this stage i will not be doing massive drop-offs and battering lumps out of bike . . . at this stage, i'm just trying to suss out the budget and options available.


many thanks for any comments.

Donald

Theres loads of hub options for 150mm spaced bikes, think the cheapest option are the Sun Ringle hubs imported by Hotlines, but as DHO said Hope are a solid option. I run a Hope BULB on mine and its been faultless really.

Pricewise you are always going to pay more for quality, but if you buy secondhand some sellers will throw the hub in with the frame and most new frames will come with a hub option at a reduction to the rrp.

Thanks for the replies chaps.  I'll go investigate the names you have suggested.   ( Like the idea of the Hopes though )


I was really approaching it from idea of Deore type brands versus the XT/XTR and Hope / Chris King / Hadley  higher end makes.


Whilst there is no doubt you see a level of better componentry with the middle to higher end brands and lines, in the XC world, if you buy a deore component, it is going to work reasonably well for a while and will see you through so to speak  and i was wondering if there was a line / brand that fell into that category for the DH style hubs of 150 12mm axles.

Its all interesting none the less.   

there are companies that do bread and butter componentry. give me a while and i'll source some out

Not really, 150by12mm spacing is only really prevelent on high end, specialist DH frames- as such there are not really any cheap options, most manufacturers will only make one model (their most expensive) in 150mm spacing. You can get cheaper hubs in bolt through but standard 135mm rear spacing.

Unfortunately when it comes to 150mm you are going to have to spend a bit I'm afraid.